Monday, December 14, 2015

Stick to the Status Quo?

In this picture, you can clearly see an African-American woman who is sitting at a diner. This diner has a strict no colored policy where African-Americans are not allowed to eat or sit in the diner. In fact, during this time period, many public spots restricted African-Americans from visiting or using public places. As you can tell, a white woman is working the counter and is clearly a bit uncomfortable or uneasy. The black woman is taking a stand for independence and rights. She is not conforming to society and will follow whatever she thinks is best. Even though society is saying that blacks should not be a part of society and should not have certain rights, the woman knows that this isn't right. It can also be shown that she is the only African-American in this picture. We can assume that she is going against the dining policy by herself. We can maybe assume that other blacks were afraid to take a stand. This can show that there is no stopping this woman from believing that blacks deserve to be treated like normal humans and have the right to do the same things as white people. She is not afraid to go up against the normal of society. In fact, she probably knows what the consequences are of not conforming to society. It can lead to a lot of violence and maybe even arrest. She is aware of the risks of doing this, but she knows that she has the right to do this and the normal of this society isn't morally correct or fair.

I think that this woman should be admired for taking a stand and not conforming to the normal of society. We need more people to do things like this. Just because segregating blacks was the normal in society, doesn't mean it was morally right. If we didn't have people going against the normal, what would that make of our society? We would just be following whatever everyone else is doing, even if we don't agree with it. This picture or action can give us motivation to not conform to the normal. Everyone needs to realize that it is okay to not to stick to the status quo. People need to follow what they think is right and stay true to their own morals. We are shown examples of this from Rosa Parks or the March with John Lewis. All these people knew that society was being unfair. They decided to make a change. They probably knew of all the dangers of their actions. In fact, Rosa Parks was arrested and the people at the March were brutally hurt. The actions of these people opened up the eyes of society. The people in society realized how wrong segregation was and this sparked change in our country. Without the radical actions of these people, our society would be drastically different today. Having order and restrictions isn't everything. Our country actually needs non-conformity. We cannot just have people conforming to normal of society.

Reflecting upon my blog, I think I am actually very proud of it. To be honest, starting off my blog was a bit unnatural for me since I've never done anything like this. However, I learned that the whole blog experience is actually very important. In my own blog, I've addressed many issues that are going on in our society today. I've actually addressed many recent issues with discrimination. Discrimination is a serious issue, but it's not like I have a passion for it. I've addressed this topic a lot because it is something that keeps coming up in our society. This can say a lot about our country and what needs to be done to fix it.

1 comment:

Kelly, You should be proud of your blog! You've done a nice job this term overall. This is an interesting artifact to analyze, but it'd help to offer specific context: who took it? when? for what purpose? Also, glad you invoke John Lewis, but why not quote from March?